How to implement switch-case statement in Kotlin
You could do like this:
when (x) {
1 -> print("x == 1")
2 -> print("x == 2")
else -> { // Note the block
print("x is neither 1 nor 2")
}
}
extracted from official help
switch
in Java is effectively when
in Kotlin. The syntax, however, is different.
when(field){
condition -> println("Single call");
conditionalCall(field) -> {
print("Blocks");
println(" take multiple lines");
}
else -> {
println("default");
}
}
Here's an example of different uses:
// This is used in the example; this could obviously be any enum.
enum class SomeEnum{
A, B, C
}
fun something(x: String, y: Int, z: SomeEnum) : Int{
when(x){
"something" -> {
println("You get the idea")
}
else -> {
println("`else` in Kotlin`when` blocks are `default` in Java `switch` blocks")
}
}
when(y){
1 -> println("This works with pretty much anything too")
2 -> println("When blocks don't technically need the variable either.")
}
when {
x.equals("something", true) -> println("These can also be used as shorter if-statements")
x.equals("else", true) -> println("These call `equals` by default")
}
println("And, like with other blocks, you can add `return` in front to make it return values when conditions are met. ")
return when(z){
SomeEnum.A -> 0
SomeEnum.B -> 1
SomeEnum.C -> 2
}
}
Most of these compile to switch
, except when { ... }
, which compiles to a series of if-statements.
But for most uses, if you use when(field)
, it compiles to a switch(field)
.
However, I do want to point out that switch(5)
with a bunch of branches is just a waste of time. 5 is always 5. If you use switch
, or if-statements, or any other logical operator for that matter, you should use a variable. I'm not sure if the code is just a random example or if that's actual code. I'm pointing this out in case it's the latter.
The switch case is very flexible in kotlin
when(x){
2 -> println("This is 2")
3,4,5,6,7,8 -> println("When x is any number from 3,4,5,6,7,8")
in 9..15 -> println("When x is something from 9 to 15")
//if you want to perform some action
in 20..25 -> {
val action = "Perform some action"
println(action)
}
else -> println("When x does not belong to any of the above case")
}